Kroon takes Plouay on Bastille Day

Rabobank leads Dutch sweep

Sunday’s eighth stage of the Tour de France was a long, hot day in thesaddle across France’s Brittany region and the peloton wanted to get itover with quickly. It was a stage that spelled the end for Mapei’s OscarFreire and Lotto’s Aart Vierhouten, both victims of Saturday’slate-race crashes did not start on Sunday.

The group roared past huge crowds of fans celebrating France’s BastilleDay and covered nearly 100 kilometers in the first two hours. A seven–manbreakaway slipped away midway through the stage and became the second successfulbreak of the 89th Tour. Rabobank’s Karsten Kroon ruined the hopesof the three Frenchmen in the break and won the stage.

Still in charge

Photo: Graham Watson

Three-time defending champion Lance Armstrong avoided troublea day after nearly falling. He finished safely in the lead group and remainedin eighth overall, 37 seconds back of Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano.

The first week of the Tour is over. The “real” race begins in Monday’s52km (32.2-mile) individual time trial.

Kroon takes the cakeSeveral breaks tried in vain to drop the bunch early on but to no availas the group motored along at a brisk pace, with an average speed overthe first hour of 48.5 kph.

Aussie Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Adecco) continued to spar with GermanErik Zabel (Telekom) for the green points jersey. McEwen won thefirst intermediate sprint at 35.5km and Zabel was second, bringing theAustralian two points closer to the German, who started the day with afive-point lead. Breaks gobbled up the points at the following two sprintsand McEwen finished just ahead of Zabel in the bunch sprint, but Zabelmaintained his hold on the jersey by just two points.

At 108km, seven riders attacked, including two Rabobank riders (Kroonand Erik Dekker) and three French riders (Stéphane Augé,Sébastian Hinault and Franck Renier). The group pushedtheir lead to 4:40 after three hours on the course that wound through Brittany,a region rich in cycling history. Five-time Tour winner Bernard Hinault(no relation to Credit Agricole’s Sebastian Hinault) and Louison Bobet,winner of three Tours de France, come from the area.

Renier became the on-course virtual leader for the third time this Touras the break’s gap widened to 6:00 with about 65km to race. ONCE beganto drive the main bunch to narrow the gap to preserve the yellow jerseyfor Galdeano going into Monday’s time trial. Once the lead was under fourminutes, Jaan Kirsipuu’s AG2R troops took up the chase, hoping toset up their leader for a second stage win

AG2R ran out of steam though, and the seven leaders were left in peaceto contest the day’s win. The final part of the stage followed the circuitcourse of the 2000 world championships, and two short, but steep climbsin the final 10 kilometers proved to be a punishing finish for the leaders.

The group attacked each other relentlessly. Dekker was dropped withabout 11km to go, but came back on the last climb. Dekker then shot offhard with about 3km to go but was reeled in by the group. He then startedto attack the group to force them to chase him, a strategy that allowedKroon to sit in while the others chased him down.

“I tried to get away, but I know I am still not 100 percent,” said Dekker,who broke his hip in a spill at Tirreno-Adriatico in March. “When I knewit was not possible, I was very happy to help Kroon.”

Lithuanian champion Raivis Belohvosciks (Lampre-Daikin) attackedhard with 1km to go and opened up a small gap, but the French riders workedtogether to bring him back. Instead, Kroon had the freshest legs and cameacross the line a length ahead of another Dutchman, fast-finishing ServaisKnaven of Domo-Farm-Frites, to give the Dutch team its first victoryof the 2002 Tour.

“Dekker was very important to my victory today. I was the only riderin the bunch that didn’t have to chase,” said Kroon, 26, after winningonly his second race as a pro. “I still had the legs at the end.”

The main bunch came across 1:55 back and Galdeano kept the race leader’sjersey going into Monday’s time trial.

Saturday’s crash revisitedThings returned to normal in Sunday’s stage, at least for the U.S.Postal Service team. Armstrong was fully protected around the blue andred shell of his teammates.

The team was trying to forget Armstrong’s near-miss when a rider wentdown late in Saturday’s seventh stage and gave Armstrong a scare. Armstrongdidn’t fall, but lost 27 seconds Saturday and fell to eighth overall 34seconds back.

Armsstrong grabs lunch in St. Meen le Grand.

Photo: Graham Watson

On Sunday’s long stage over narrow roads, the team did its job and Armstrongfinished safely with the lead group in 35th place.

“It’s the first crash in four years,” Armstrong said Saturday evening.“We all know it’s not possible to ride a whole race without falling down.It could have been worse — like a broken collarbone and the race is finished.I’m not worried about it. It’s time to move on. The first week is alwaysdangerous. We start every year with a lot of riders, maybe too many ridersif you ask me. You have to be very careful. We try to stay at the front.We’ve been doing that every day.”

In Saturday’s finish, Armstrong’s bike got tangled up and he lost contactwith the lead group. His entire U.S. Postal Service team stopped and waitedfor him. He quickly dropped them all, however, as he shot up the steepclimb in the final two kilometers of the course. That was a good sign,Armstrong said.

“That’s the good news about the crash,” he said. “For the first timeI was really forced to go as hard as I could. I think it was pretty fast.It’s confirmation that I am good. I had good feelings at the finish tryingto come back. I wasn’t angry. I was just worried not to lose time. It wasbetter that it was uphill. If it was flat I could have lost a minute.”

Bruyneel agreed that Armstrong looked good in the final chase.

“Lance was very impressive yesterday when he was trying to chase backon at the finish yesterday,” said U.S. Postal Service directeur sportifJohan Bruyneel. “We are still confident. Now we will see how things areafter the time trial.”

Roberto Heras, who fell into Armstrong and nearly knocked theTexan off his bike, had his right knee heavily bandaged. The Spanish ridersaid he was okay after the finish Sunday.

“Normally, the day after the crash, everyone is a little stiff,” Bruyneelsaid. “But the guys are okay.”

Race of truthArmstrong once again is trying to take the pressure off himself. He’scalling Galdeano and Santiago Botero the favorites for Monday’s52km time trial from Lanester to Lorient.

“Galdeano will be good. He will be in the yellow jersey. He will bemotivated. ONCE is very confident in their declarations. I think the favoritecan be Botero. I guess I am second-fiddle,” Armstrong said. “It’s the raceof truth. It’s long. It can be windy. The profile is deceiving. It’s avery important stage.”

At a press conference, someone asked Galdeano if he was afraid of thetime trial. He said, “No.”

That sums up ONCE’s feeling going into the first of two individual timetrials. Joseba Beloki said he and Galdeano are hoping to limit theirlosses against Armstrong.

“Last year, Armstrong took 1 minute, 30 seconds on us, so under normalcircumstances, the American will win,” said Beloki, second overall fourseconds back. “This year we hope to stay closer to him. I hope to loseas little time as possible and stay close for the mountains.”

Levi Leipheimer said he is ready for the time trial, a stagethat should see him jump up in the overall standings. Sitting quietly in37th at 2:23, Leipheimer said he will ride portions of the time trial courseearly Monday morning.

“Now we’re 10 days into it and the nerves are gone. I’ve just been concentratingon staying out of trouble and it’s been good so far,” he said. “I justtake every day day-by-day and fully concentrate on the day. Each day youcan lose a lot of time. I’m not just thinking about certain days. Everyday is important.”

“I think if Botero or Galdeano are going to upset Lance, it’s goingto be tomorrow,” Leipheimer said. “I don’t think (Lance is) afraid, butI think he thinks his chances of winning are not as great as people say.I wouldn’t be surprised if Galdeano is still in the yellow jersey. Whenit comes to Paris, I’m sure Lance will have it then.”

CSC-Tiscali’s Tyler Hamilton is also hoping for good things.

“I haven’t seen the time trial course, so we’ll go take a look at it,”Hamilton said. “The race starts next week. We’ll see how my chances are.There are a lot of good time trialists here. I will aim to have a good,solid ride. I’m trying to stay relaxed. My shoulder is hurting me a littlebit. I have a little tendonitis going there. It’s not hurting as bad asin the Giro, so that’s good. I should be able to grin and bear it for 50km.”